


Looking for Stardust

by endeni



Series: Not the End [3]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Blanket Permission, Gen, Podfic Welcome, Rogue One Spoilers, Wordcount: 500-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-09-18 00:45:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9355817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/endeni/pseuds/endeni
Summary: General Leia Organa is dead. There's a reason Jyn and Cassian are not.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Not betaed, so feel free to point out any issues. ;)

**.I**

 

Rey is sleeping. In her dreams she sees the general, not the old woman she knew but the young, white-clad girl of her vision, with deep brown eyes full of conviction.

 _Go to Scarif_ , the girl whispers into her ear. _Find stardust._

 

* * *

“There's nothing on Scarif,” Poe says, his red-rimmed eyes looking at Rey from the other side of a conference table. “It’s been uninhabitable for years.”

“Stardust?” Finn asks, shaking his head in confusion. “What does that even _mean_?”

“I don't know,” Rey says. “But I have to go, I have to find out.”

Master Skywalker nods. “Yes, you should go. You too, Commander, Finn.”

Poe blinks. “I- there's too much to do, I…”

“I know she looked at you like her successor,” master Skywalker says, his tone kind, an indelible sorrow in his eyes, “but I'm sure she didn't mean for you to step into that role quite so soon.”

An hollow sound from Poe, “I’m not doing a great job of it anyway. They're not- they're not listening to me.” He brings his hand to his temples and Rey shares a worried glance with Finn.

“If that's what she wants us to do,” Finn says and that's answer enough.

They take the Falcon.

 

* * *

 

“Where to?” Finn asks, the vastness of the planet Scarif under them. Chewie echoes him with a low rumble.

Rey closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, looking for directions through the Force.

“There,” she says, setting the coordinates.

 

 

 

**.II**

 

They’re circling above the crater left by the first Death Star.

“Look,” Finn says indicating with his finger.

Poe turns to look and down the side of the valley there's… a small dot. As the Falcon gets closer, it becomes a human-shaped figure. Then it becomes a man -no, a _woman_ \- frantically weaving her arms.

 _Fuck me_ , Poe thinks.

 

* * *

 

Rey and Chewbacca take down the Falcon.

“Okay,” Poe says as they disembark, “let’s make it quick. I don’t want us to stay here a minute longer than necessary.”

He heads toward the woman.

“Hey,” he calls, "are you alright, ma'am? Do you need medical assist-”

Poe has seen that face before. Even filthy and disheveled, he recognizes the woman in front of him.

He halts his steps, like paralyzed. _Impossible_ , he thinks, eyes wide.

“My friend is hurt,” says the woman- _Jyn Erso_ , an inner voice that sounds eerily like an excited boy points out.

She’s indicating behind a small outcropping of rocks. Finn goes to check and comes out an instant later with a blaster pointed to his head. By an equally filthy and disheveled man.

“Fuck me,” Poe says because sometimes it bears repeating. That's _Cassian Andor_.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Rey exclaims, indignant.

“Look”, Poe tries to say, trying to keep his head, “we’re here to help.”

“Good,” Erso says, exchanging a look with Captain Andor, who looks kind of terrible, clutching his side with the hand not holding the blaster, “then you won't mind if we take your ship.”

“What? No, listen.. Sergeant Erso-”

“ _What_ did you just call me? How do you know my name?”

Poe smiles a strangled smile, “You’re on history books,” he says. You are my heroes, the young boy in him wants to add.

“Look, it’s been more than thirty years,” he says indicating around. “And we better leave in a hurry, the planet’s atmosphere is still toxic. Which, by the way, means that if you take our ship and leave us here we’re probably going to die.”

Well, unless someone notices their disappearance and comes looking for them before it's too late. They probably would, right?

A growl comes from Chewbacca, whose bowcaster is twitching.

Poe lifts a hand, signaling him to (please) stay put. He recognizes the fevered, trapped look in the captain’s eyes and he doesn't want to make the wrong move and get Finn shot. He watches Erso and Andor exchange another glance.

“How do we know you’re not Empire,” Captain Andor slowly says.

“There's no Empire anymore, at least not by that name,” Poe replies.

“We came here because I had a vision,” Rey says. “We don't want to hurt you.”

“A vision?” A soft snort from Andor. “What are you, a Jedi?” His tone is almost wistful.

“Yes”, Rey simply says. And then, in the astonished silence that follows: “And we have to find stardust, do you know what that means?”

Another glance. Erso jerks as in surprise and Andor lowers his weapon.

“That's me”, Jyn Erso says.

 _Of course it is_ , Poe thinks, almost hysterically.

 

* * *

 

Poe watches Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor climb onto the ship, walking side by side and sitting so close to one another it’s like they want to get inside each other’s skin and Poe gets it, he does, they’re the only ones left in a strange world, a changed galaxy.

And, oh, how is he going to explain to them about Alderaan, about the Starkiller base and that the Empire had been defeated but the war isn’t over, that it’s never going to be over?

Now that the general is gone, Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor are the Resistance’s best hope. Poe can’t think of anyone better suited to motivate the jumbled, cowardly mess that the Resistance has become than the woman who convinced the Rebellion to try and retrieve the first Death Star plans against impossible odds and the man who followed her into hell.

 _Yes_ , Poe tells himself, _it's going to be alright._


End file.
